The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has backtracked on ambitious plans to introduce a voluntary accreditation scheme for solicitors appearing in the higher courts following opposition from top judges and others.

In what was described at its meeting in Birmingham last week as a ‘pragmatic’ decision, the SRA board accepted that opposition to the proposal meant it was unlikely to win support from the legal services consultative panel, which would advise the Lord Chancellor on whether to approve the move from the current mandatory scheme for gaining rights of audience.

Instead, on the basis of ‘half a loaf’ rather than nothing, the board chose to seek a ‘more streamlined and accessible’ mandatory scheme, involving an initial assessment supported by targeted continuing professional development. This was cast as an interim position before returning to the issue in around three years’ time.

The decision was roundly criticised by board member Edward Solomons, head of legal at the Metropolitan Police, who said ‘the correct approach is to do what’s right’, rather than pragmatic. He said it was a ‘scandal’ how few solicitors had acquired higher rights so many years after the bar’s monopoly had been broken, which was ‘partly because some members of the senior judiciary and bar subtly discouraged it’.

Two-thirds of those who replied to the consultation on the reform said there would not be sufficient protection of either the public interest or advocacy standards. They included Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, President of the Queen’s Bench Division and incoming Lord Chief Justice Sir Igor Judge, the Council of Her Majesty’s Circuit Judges, the Legal Services Commission and top City law firms such as Herbert Smith, Lovells and Allen & Overy. The board’s own education and training committee has also consistently opposed a voluntary scheme.

The Law Society, City of London Law Society, Clifford Chance and Crown Prosecution Service were among those in favour.

Meanwhile, the board is to consult on its new equality and diversity strategy, which aims to embed equality and diversity in all of the SRA’s activities. Implementation will be measured through the delivery of a two-year action plan designed to address the key recommendations of Lord Ouseley’s report on disproportionate outcomes in the SRA’s regulatory work.